Beauty, food, fashion: what makes TikTok such a trendsetting platform?

Both the company, ByteDance, and TikTok have sued on First Amendment grounds. The First Amendment to the US Constitution protects the freedom of religion, speech, the press, assembly and the right to petition.

While the platform faces uncertain times, its influence remains undisputed.

Most of the more than 170 million Americans who use TikTok belong to the under-30 age group coveted by retailers, according to the Pew Research Centre, based in the US.

Whether fans of the platform or not, shoppers may have a #tiktokmademebuyit moment without knowing the origin story behind an eye-catching product.

The company has disclosed little about the technology it employs to populate users’ “For You” feeds.

Jake Bjorseth, founder of the advertising agency Trndsttrs, which specialises in Generation Z, thinks the app’s use of an interest-based algorithm instead of personal contacts to connect like-minded people is what gave TikTok the edge.

TikTok also changed the standard for what was considered desirable in social media content.

The beginner-friendly platform featured videos made without filters, lighting set-ups or production-level audio. TikTok creators could develop more intimate relationships with their followers because they appeared more authentic, Bjorseth said.

Others accuse TikTok of encouraging harmful behaviour, like girls engaging in skincare rituals intended for older women.

Yet for all the detractors who will not mourn TikTok if it goes away, a vocal base of fans hopes it does not come to that.

Fashion and accessories

Casey Lewis, a trend analyst based in New York, said TikTok’s clout in the fashion arena first became apparent to her when videos about Birkenstock’s Boston clogs overtook her “For You” feed in 2022.

As the number of TikTok videos exploded, creators advised their followers where they could find the suddenly sold-out clogs.

Lewis thought it was odd since her brother, whom she described as a “frat boy” and not a fashionista, wore the cork-soled comfort shoes at university.

“I’m not a psychologist, but I’m sure there’s some psychology where your brain goes from thinking like, ‘How weird? Is that fashion?’ And then suddenly you’re obsessed with it,” she said.

While the rotating cast of “cores” may not drive their adherents to buy entire wardrobes, they are “influencing spending in small ways, and that adds up”, Lewis said.

Daniella López White, 21, a recent university graduate on a tight budget, said TikTok influencers provided tips on finding affordable clothes but also connected her to plus-size creators featuring fashions for larger-bodied women, which made her more confident.

“Those TikTok trends really helped me figure out what parts of my body I want to accentuate and feel cute in, and still incorporate my sense of style,” she said.

Food

“Every day, honestly, I am blown away by the creativity from the FoodTok community,” restaurateur and chef Gordon Ramsay said in a TikTok video in late 2023.

Like the clothing styles of earlier eras, foods that had fallen out of fashion were resurrected via TikTok. US sales of cottage cheese jumped 34 per cent between April 2022 and April 2024 after videos promoting cottage cheese ice cream, cottage cheese toast and other recipes racked up millions of views.

Ben Sokolsky, the general manager of sales and marketing for US-based dairy company Daisy Brand, said cottage cheese is seeing its highest sustained growth in nearly 50 years. The curdled milk product used to be a “secret sensation”, but social media helped expose new customers to its benefits, Sokolsky said.

Topics that went viral on TikTok have even spawned analogue equivalents. In summer 2023, TikTokker Olivia Maher posted what she called her “girl dinner” of bread, cheese, pickles and grapes. It was a hit, with more than 1.6 million views. A handful of “girl dinner” cookbooks soon followed.

An autopsy of the boy, who had a congenital heart defect, found that eating a large quantity of chilli pepper extract caused his death. Paqui, the maker of the chip, pulled it off the market.

Beauty

TikTok has upended the cosmetics industry by causing ingredients to get labelled as the next miracle cure or to be avoided and featuring videos of people gleefully applying or panning the contents of their latest shopping hauls.

The “clean girl” aesthetic, a renamed version of the no-make-up make-up look, prompted both luxury and pharmacy brands to rush out their own versions of skin tints and lip oils.

Some veteran users of TikTok have noted the platform is almost too good in its role as both a tastemaker and a shopping search engine. A popular category of beauty videos shows influencers “decluttering” drawers filled with piles of barely used lipsticks, blushes and eyeshadow palettes.

Though the desire for clicks can encourage creators to follow the same hair and make-up trends, TikTok’s defenders credit the platform with forcing brands to create products for a wider range of skin tones and hair types.

Tiffany Watson, who currently has more than 31,00 followers on TikTok, says the platform has promoted a more inclusive image of beauty compared to other sites.

“I see more diversity on TikTok because [with] every video you’re swiping, you’re seeing somebody new,” she said.